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The “white noise’ Randy Carlyle was able to block out of the Maple Leaf dressing room all season is about to get a lot louder.

But the Leafs intend to embrace it Monday night, in their first playoff home game in nine years - at least while it’s in their favour. Winger and alternate captain Joffrey Lupul has tried to fire up the often docile Air Canada Centre before, banging on the glass after scoring, waving his arms on the bench. But he senses the fans won’t need much urging when the Leafs and Bruins step on the ice tonight.

“With nine years of not being in the playoffs, it’s a little tough to ask people to come to a regular season game and get into it,” Lupul said after the morning skate. “It will be a loud, rowdy atmosphere I’m sure, but it won’t be as special if we don’t play as well as we’re capable. Now they have a team they can be proud of and hopefully it shows tonight.”

The Leafs have the crowd and last line change going for them, but can’t overlook the Bruins coming out much better than Game 2. The clubs split one-goal decisions at the ACC in regular season.

Defenceman Andrew Ference comes back in the Boston lineup tonight and though he’s not a game-breaker, it does give coach Claude Julien the option of re-uniting Dennis Seidenberg with Zdeno Chara. The latter will likely be sticking to Phil Kessel as much as matching is allowed, but Julien said too much was being made of the subject after Kessel’s Game 2 breakaway goal with Chara on the bench.

“That was a goal Phil scored (under ideal Kessel conditions),” Julien sad. “A lot was said about Chara not being there, but our defence had the parting of the Red Sea.

“This is a Leafs team, not a Kessel team. There are many players you have to look at, not just Phil.”

The Bruins have a strong Toronto-area contingent in their ranks, though most tickets are in the hundreds of dollars and players on both clubs will have trouble filling multiple requests.

Carlyle kept starting goalie James Reimer off the ice for morning warmups, but said other lineup changes would be “kept internal” until game time.

“It’s been a long time since the fans could cheer about playoffs and have a home game,” Leaf centre Nazem Kadri said. “Hopefully, we can put the cherry on top tonight."